If you’ve ever tried to seat certain tubeless tires without a compressor, you know it’s not always an easy task. Some of the better tires and rims have no problem snapping into place, but that’s not always the case. After being approached by mechanics and riders to create a way to seat tires without a compressor, milKit went to the drawing board and came up with the Tubeless Booster. First launched through Kickstarter, the real life product is here and will be available in a week or so.
To be honest, the concept isn’t that different from the many DIY tubeless inflators you can find instructions for on the web. The difference is that the Booster is foolproof, super light, portable, and the canister doubles as a water bottle when you don’t need to seat tires. Available in a 20oz and a 34oz aluminum bottle, the smaller bottle may fit in some cages, while the larger bottle will need to go in your pack or a larger anything cage or similar.
When you need to use the Booster, you’ll remove the bottle cap, remove, drink, or transfer the water to another vessel, and install the Booster head which is a super light plastic nozzle with a presta valve to fill the bottle, and a presta-only fill valve for the tire.
After inflating the bottle to 120-160psi, simply press the nozzle against the valve on the rim and it will release all the air at once with a satisfying pop of the tire into the rim.
Note that this demonstration uses milKit’s own tubeless valves – which is one of the advantages of the system. The milKit valves have a rubber one way seal on the bottom which allows you to remove the valve cores when filling, which lets the air flow more freely through the valve and into the tire. But once the air goes in, the rubber seal closes and doesn’t let the air back out.
You should be able to use the Booster on regular tubeless valves with the valve core in place, but don’t expect it to work quite as well – especially if your valves are gunked up with sealant. However, you should be remove the valve core on your own tubeless valves and use the Booster to pop the tire beads in place. The air will leak out of the tire when you pull the Booster, but the tire will be seated allowing you to refill with a hand or floor pump.
The Booster will retail for around $65 in a kit that includes the milKit tubeless valves as well.
